A towering statue of an eagle and a menorah stands watch above the entrance gate of Trump Heights, a remote community of prefabricated homes in the rocky, mine-strewn Golan Heights. At the horizon, mauve mountain peaks rise out of the blue sky.
This was Trump’s prize for acknowledging Israel’s territorial claims to the Golan, which it had unilaterally annexed after capturing it from Syria during the 1967 war, upending half a century of US policy and broad international agreement.
Two dozen families and a few billeted soldiers live there, and they are wondering what effect Republican nominee Trump or Democratic opponent Kamala Harris would have on Israel’s current regional interests.
For the safety of a tiny rural village, Elik Goldberg and his wife Hodaya relocated to Trump Heights with their four kids.
They have seen Israel’s battle with Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, intensify along the northern border with Lebanon, ten miles distant, since the Hamas assaults in southern Israel on October 7 of last year.
“Our lovely view is a view of rockets that Hezbollah is sending to us, and our beautiful green open space has been filled with smoke for the past year,” Elik said. We don’t know when the conflict will finish, but this is a battle zone.
